THE future looks bleak for Coventry’s walled garden after the council has stopped its development.

Volunteers at Allesley Park’s walled garden sell their produce at monthly markets on site and promote the “grow your own” philosophy to visiting pupils from Coventry schools.

When they started gardening 10 years ago they planned to gradually expand to fill the walled plot.

But now they have cultivated a quarter of the space Coventry City Council has refused to let them go any further.

Secretary of the garden group Maureen Harris said: “The council initially thought it was a great idea and asked us to do a pilot plot.

“When we saw the council in 2001 they said we’d done wonderful work on the pilot and we could move towards full restoration and a lease.

“We came back to the council every year showing our progress, making sure we could move forward each time.

“There wasn’t any suggestion this was only going to be a quarter of a garden.”

But at a meeting this week cabinet member for culture, leisure and libraries, Cllr Tim Sawdon, turned down plans to take the kitchen garden any further, saying it could be costly to the council and claiming he’d seen no hard evidence that there are enough volunteers to manage the whole area.

Coun Sawdon was told that because the garden is public land the council would need consent from the Charity Commission before leasing the whole plot which could be costly.

Mrs Harris said: “When we have 30 NVQ students there isn’t enough space on that quarter for them to do their work properly.

“We are doing more and more educational activities but without a building we have to carry everything up there and if it rains we have to call it off.

“We just can’t develop.”

Chairman Geoff Croft questioned how keen the council is to promote the green agenda.

He said: “We’ve been pioneers.

“Nobody was thinking much about growing your own, healthy eating and low food miles ten years ago, but the garden can be used to teach all these things.

“These green issues are becoming more and more important – they’re staring us the face.”

The group will hold a meeting to consider whether to carry on the garden as a quarter plot.